What started as an effort to keep an institute campus clean resulted in bringing out the patriotic fervour of its students.
The students of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing made history last week when they unfurled the National flag by using a drone.
The drone was designed by a group of students through the institute’s designers club. It was the first of its kind effort, says R. Gnanamoorthy, director of the institute.
“Until now the students did experiments only virtually. The designers club is a kind of hobby workshop to help students fabricate the design they want. The club is core of the institute and we sponsor liberally,” he adds.
The drone was intended as a project to maintain the campus, according to S.R. Pandian, visiting faculty, Department of Electronic Engineering.
“The aim was to create a drone, fitted with camera and GPS to identify trash on the campus. We bought components online and the auto pilot was purchased from abroad. A day before Independence Day, students suggested that we fly the National flag,” he says.
The drone will now be used to transmit information on garbage on the campus to a robot on the ground which will then self-drive to the spot and pick up the trash, Prof. Pandian adds.
A group of students are now developing an app that will help the institute communicate information. Prof. Gnanamoorthy says the app was an easier way to reach out to students, instead of mail and notice board announcements.
“This project was given to the students instead of going to commercial organisations as we thought we would train our students,” he says.
Designed to locate trash on the campus, it was used to fly the National flag on I-Day eve
